So... God exists!!!!
The shrimpette is still sleeping and it's about 9.00 am!!!! She woke up only once last night.
If it could be that way everyday.... (happy sigh)

There are 2 kinds of people: those who know the names of flowers and plants and the others :P
So far, we're among "the others"...

But now that we have a hobbit house and TWO gardens... I feel like in front of many new lil everests!... like turning into a gardener! lol
You can tell me there are hundreds of different roses, for me a rose is a rose.

So what?
So I'm going to learn all I can to make of our gardens lil paradises. I've ordered 4 second-hand books to help (= to do miracles), one about how having a great garden while being a lazy gardener (good beginning me thinks :P), another to know what to do each month of the year, and two others about aromatic plants, herbs, and flowers.
Phewwww!

I know what I want at least: a not too organized garden, with zillions of different perfumes floating in the air.
I think the climate in Bretagne is pretty appropriate to get a fine garden (in our family house just near ours, we have kiwis, palm trees, many sorts of fruits and flowers)... but what do I really know about all that! So far my gardener's side is limited to my rubber boots and motivation !

I've seen the cover and back cover of my book! ohhhhh it's so kewl, so pleasant to see it about to become real!
It will be a small book, sold at a low price. Too bad I can't tell more here!

(jumping around!... I will hold my book in a month!!!)

my CUTE touch of the day :-)


Why honey's yellow...

Lola has caught a cold and make of it a nightmare for us (thank you my shrimpette! hehe)
She woke up, I dunno... about every 20 minutes in average last night, coughing, unable to sleep comfortably.
I looked at the clock one time... it was 2.28 am, I went to calm her down. I was back in the bed at 2.30 (I'm quick).
2.35, Lola woke up again couching so hard.
And this went on and on.

I haven't slept more than 4 hours I think.

Mr Cold (can't be a "miss"!), you'd beDer leave my shrimpette alone! I won't let you rule my day and next night! ohhhh nenene!

Our weekend in Bretagne was short (not even 48 hours there) but it was really kewl.

We spent much time in the house, talking to the mason about the first works (which will start in April!).


entrance to our "upper" garden"

And for the first time I started to see myself living there. Maybe because I've started to drive again a bit (lol, if you see a reddish head driving at some ridiculously low speed with a huge proud smile, it's me! hehe). The fact I had stopped driving for years (more than 10 years) bothered me a lot. You can't live in the countryside without driving!
Anyway, at the end of summer I'll be a better driver than Villeneuve!

While Martin helped to work in the family house in Plouer, I also spent much time outside with the shrimpette. We has such a fine weather! One day, we'll be able to enjoy that weather all the time, with no limit. No return to the big polluted city! Woooooooooooooooo



And unlike what was expected, we managed to watch the 6 nations' rugger final on Saturday evening! What a game! Guiness for some, wine for others, a huge fireplace to keep us warm... that was a fine evening! hic!

We were back in Paris early enough for me to go to vote.
SIGH
The only reason why I voted for this second round (regional elections here) was to vote "against" the extreme right party. If we had a sincere left wing party, I'd happily vote for it. But it's another hypocritical gang who plays with us as much as any other party.
SIGH

If the greens were independent (not stuck to the left party), then I'd vote for dem.
SIGH

Why is there 2 rounds anyway? I voted for the most human list (according to me) on the first round (it got only hmm 2.5% of the total votes! lol)
and that was my choice. Going for a second round is forcing people to vote for the *less worst*...
SIGH

anyway, I'll stop sighing now my political post is done!
;-)

Fortunatelly we managed to get this mini tv work in Bretagne.... otherwise we would have missed THAT.... !!!!



(dancing around!!!)

Et voilà: on the road again!
It seems a sunny Bretagne is about to welcome us for the weekend! Weeeeee**~~*^* * *^^* *
It will be really short but for a glass of good chouchen (another form of mead -and yes, I rilly like it!-) in front of the fireplace tonight, I'd do anything, even ready to sell my soul (but that I do already everyday! LOL!)

(grabbing my 30 CDs box, jumping in the car.... woooooooooosh!!!)

Been ages I've posted a *tv-quote-of-the-week* !
And today it's the delicious miss Marple who gonna help me doing it.
Between noisy 2 pubs in Hamburg, we've enjoyed a few times the pleasure of soft music and hot jasmin tea with honey. Wasn't Miss Marple crasy 'bout tea?



Ackenthorpe: "There is one thing I cannot tolerate, and that is impertinence."
Miss Marple: "Well, we should get on admirably. Neither can I!"

Here are a few pics from our trip to Hamburg. The only photos we made was when the shrimpette was around, of course :)


my German family at its best :-) **~~**^* *!


the place near the elbe where we luuuve having a pino griccio or a beer... and a wurst!


Lola with her Opa und Papa discovering the "Dom"


I should be on the pic, but "my" (I was alone) four seats thingie rolling on itself was too quick!


Lola training hard her mama... and vice-versa!

Why is it always me who brings virus into Gulli?
I'm very careful though, I get rid of all this fookin email stuff with their pifzipzapzoooop files attached, but this morning I had the pleasure to get a trojan horse (via nasty GATOR) just when I opened the page of a friend!
Very annoying!

We got rid of the virus but I don't like starting my days infected that way :P

One bad piece of news, then an excellent one. There is definatly a kind of strange balance in this world!

I'm gonna be a AUNTIE for the second time in my life!!!!!
Weeeeeeeeeeeeehoooooooooooooo
(dancing almost quietly around poor ol' Joe)

Gwenola is pregnant and due term is for next november!!!!
Ha ha, she'll know the joys of being all ROUND in full summer ;-)

I'm very happy for her, for the papa, Luc, and for my favourite niece Eva **~~*^* ***~~*^*

(message to Gweno: send me a pic of ewww three, I don't have any!!! -taping foot-)

Watta shock when I discovered my lil tiger of siberia after his operation!!!!!
Gawd, I expected a 5 cm scar hidden in his hairs....
(I hope nobody faints when discovering the pic...)



The operation went ok, but Joe seems to feel so bad now :(((
We have just put a plastic thingie around his neck so that he does not bite his huge scar. He does not know how to walk properly with that, he just goes into everything when he starts walking (booooooooo)...
And I wonder how he'll eat or drink with this boring thingie around! He must keep it for 2 weeks...

We'll know in 10 days if the tumour might come back or not. SIGH :((((

17 months-old and already so independant! Even more today... yup, for the very first time, the shrimpette has used her potty! And she did it 4 times with much concentration, watta goil! (very proud mama here who wondered how Lola will ever *learn* to use it...tssss! :-)

Here are the tattoos we've just made:



We haven't made close shots but I'll do that later, when they'll get totally healed.

It's been years we wanted to get tattoos. Martin knew what he wanted, a typical tattoo of the 1940s, 1950s in the Hamburg's harbour style. So here he gos! And he wanted my name in it... hehe. I luuuuve it!

Our *Tattoo maker* (a grand father looking like santa claus, but with more sex-appeal! lol) was happy to make a traditionnal tattoo.
He said most of the time now people comes to get "cybermachine type" tattoos... mix of fantasy and science fiction... which takes a lot of time (many details) and money :P
He also said that people chose more now to get tattoos with the name of their children rather than partner (too many divorces! lol). And favorite place for a tattooed name = on the neck (eeeeeeeeeeeck!)

As for me, I had no idea about what kind of tattoo I wanted (not a buderfly or flower! Of that I was sure! hehe)... just something linked to Martin. That's why I chose a dragon (he used to get "da wyrrm" handle on the web).

The *tattoo shop* was called "Painless tattoos and piercings"... just near was another shop called *endless pain*! The second name was more realistic!!!
Everybody gets a tatoo and no one complains... but I!!! I must be over sensitive, I found that very very painful!!!
Much more painful than a piercing!

It felt just as if a knife with big non-sharp *teeth* was used SLOWLY to open the skin. Eeeeeeck!
And our tattoo guy explained that women who had given birth were less sensitive than most of the guys...because they *know* "real" pain... LOL
Liar, liar :P

Anyway, I still do not sleep very well with it, but I luuuuve feeling it. I'd re-do it any day!

We've received the authorization to start the renovation of our hobbit house! Weeeeeeeeeeeeee (I'm happy but that means MONEY will be required... SIGH!)
We've just taken rendez-vous with the mason for Saturday morning. We'll fix the date to start the works.
That means on Friday evening woooooosh we'll be on our way to Bretagne!

Good I'm on a *maximum energy* cycle, but when the next cycle comes... I gotta be ready to hibernate I think :P

I've heard the other day that they'll make a musical from the Lord of the Ring...!
The concept of it sounds so stoooooopid! What next...? Mickey in a Greek tragedy? Winny le poooo in a porn?
(sigh)

Yesterday I've had some serious talk with the editor about our book. While I was away, it had been decided we'll wait for the second book to be written (because we work on a series), before publishing the first one.
And it was something neither Pascale (the writter) nor I could accept. Really that felt like our book would never be published, or published one day once they would have taken all they could from us!

But we discussed, and they agreed to publish the first book as we had decided before.
I would have never ever thought things would go well this time.
But it worked!
I'm fookin happy for that!

Phewwwwwwwww

Of course Life is never always pinkish and I always expect some greyish colours at the corner of the street.
I'm kinda prepare to that, but nebber enough!

While in Hamburg, we noticed (2 days ago actually) that Joe had suddenly like a lil bone coming out near one of his back legs... We thought he had broken something... but he did not feel any pain at all. Weird.

Yesterday morning, as soon as the pets' doc opened, I took Joe there. And the verdict was clear in less than 2 minutes, he has a tumour spreading in the muscle of his leg.
BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!

Tomorrow morning he gonna be opetared, they'll remove that tumour.
My poor lil hairy baby!!!!
As Martin says, he has to be "repaired", so if it's the only way then it will be fine.

I wish I could be there with him, holding his lil paw during the operation, but the shrimpette has other plans for me :)
Anyway, Joe is almost 12 years-old, I knew such thingies had to come sooner or later.
(sigh)

Hamburg... just the name of it rings like Heaven for me!
hehe

We've been so well welcome by Martin's parents who are sweet and available and always interested in everything! (happy sigh, I'm fookin lucky to have such a family there).
After 1 day, we got the habit to let Lola with her Oma and Opa for a good part of the day and again in the late evenings!

Having time for ourselves tasted rilly rilly good. I've almost got used to it!
We've managed to see a few friends there, including Thorsten, Oli and Tanja, etc, and some part of the family. It feels so good when you're welcome that way... you never wanna leave after that!

(happy sigh)

What I can say is that we haven't lost one single minute while in Hamburg, we did so much...:
...been for good ol' shopping (well, ok, I'm not such a material goil -cough cough- but...shopping is something I never do in Paris!), I'm back with my expensive but very comfortable Birkenstock now :P
...been on a curry wursts tour ;-)
...been in pubs trying bitter beers and later some pino griccio to recover!
...been in some soft and comfortable places to enjoy the most delicious teas
...been to enjoy the Hamburg's brunch on Sunday
...been to some parcs with adorable animals coming to eat in our hands
...been celebrating St Patrick's day
...been to train again to drive a bit (I did that for 3 days, even after our 3 hours' night!)
...been to the Hamburg fair, the "Dom"
...been walking along the Elbe when the sun was shining hard
...been having fun quite many times in St Pauli
...been tattoed by a specialist of traditionnal Hamburg's tattoos (much more painful than what I thought! lol!)
...been to dance a few times in the Grünspan (heavy/new metal club)
...been to spend really warm times with our Hamburg's friends

(re-happy-sigh)

I could get addicted to all that!

I'm back!!!!!!! (I know Gulliver missed me :-)
It took us 11 hours to come back (just in time to go to vote! phewww! ;-), Gawd I'm exhausted.
Exausted but happy, this week was simply fantastic!
Martin's parents took care of Lola often enough so that Martin and I could share much time together, often partying hard (yesterday we slept 3 hours only, can ya believe it?! hehe.. huuuuuuuu!)

Okies, I'll tell more later (gotta take care of my tatooooooo, it's still painful!)
Life is beauDiful!!!!
....(except when you're just back from hols, neee? ;-)

Et voilà, the car is almost full.. and when I say full, you would not believe it!
We leave for 10 days, but it would be for 3 months it would not make any difference.
(poor Martin, he realizes what it means to travel with a goil and a goilette!) hehe

We'll leave tomorrow morning to spend about 11 hours to go to Hamburg, it gonna be long for Lola and our tiger of siberia, we'll have to stop often.

Will I improve my German, I wonder? (lol it can only be improved anyway :P)

At least what I know is that as soon as our feet touch Hamburg's pavement, we'll switch into our party time mode! ... just the idea of it is already very exciting !!!:))))

Such a welcoming family and friends there, it will be just purrrfect (roooaaaRRRR) **~~*^* ***^**

Talking of Hamburg... we've naturally planned to meet as many *guuuud* friends there as we can. Meeting them once, twice a year make our relationship somehow more intense I think.
Oliver (who made the most brilliant photos for our wedding) is one of dem, it's been 2 years we've seen each other... Lola wasn't born yet! We've plan to see Oli and Tanja on Monday evening in some pub I think.

Oliver's passion is photography, you can get an idea of what he does here...To me, he's the photographer of the party spirit in Hamburg :P

**~~* *(dancing around)**~~*^* *

And I who thought we were getting out of winter, I wake up this morning, it's bloody cold and snow's falling again (well microscopic type of snow, ya see)!
It seems they have 10cm of snow in Hamburg and a bit more in in some parts of southern Germany... brrrrrrr!!!
(I know I know it's not like Antartica yet :P)

I've just finished a new painting about Harpies
, these nasty birds :)
I just had to start with my lil illustrated Fantasy encyclopedia's project, and there you go. I must say the original version (not the scanned one!) looks really good, so much better than on my screen (frustated grmmmpppphhhh here!)

I have to create a new gallery for this encyclopedia on the site, but that will come later!

Lola's 17 months-old today! hehe... that won't mean much to many, but to us it means... 1 month left before the terrrrrible "18th months"!!!!
Yup, there are times when the inner clock of our babes seems to ring in some noisy Harmony ;-) ... the 8th month, the 18th month, the 2 years, etc.
When does it stop? ... I don't want to know rilly ;-)

Lola has taken some new habits like... totally refusing to sleep in the dark (wish us good luck when we sleep in the same room as Lola in Hamburg!), refusing sometimes to make a lil nap during the day (which you can see on her tired lil face below), giving me some big kisses on the mouff (which is fine except when she's eating her yuckkkky baby stuff), and starting to enjoy being a typical lil goil (specially when I do something with her hair, she just luuuuves it :P) **~~*^* *

I did not really think there would be another book to be published after our first one ... but the publishing house already puts some pressure about a second book. They wanna make a collection, with 4, 5 books.
It's kewl, though... It's not of much use to put pressure on me!!!! We've not signed anywhere that we'd make a second book (meaning: not about to earn any money for it), we just talked of it.
They will have to motivate me a bit and at least be patient.

It's just that I'm running after time (and money!) and this other project will make me busy for another month. Besides, I guess this second book won't make me a millionaire,
So I just wanna TIME for the moment...
A reasonnable request me thinks :)

It's not the worst of the black adder, hm?
nooooooo!


Blackadder.
You are as cunning as a fox that's just been
appointed Professor of Cunning at Oxford
University. You've always got a mischevous idea
and a witty retort ready at hand.


Which enduring Blackadder character are you?
brought to you by Quizilla

Martin's been laffing for 5 min when I gave him this quizz result! grmmmpphhhh (shrugging!!)


Lord Percy Percy


What smashing Blackadder character are you?
brought to you by Quizilla

It's been a rugger weekend full of suprises!
I'm glad we made it against the Welsh (with their 2 tries which have not been validated, I'd be maaaaaaaad -if I was Welsh, that is :P)
Good for Italy too... sad for the Scots.
Great for Ireland... and logical for the Roastbeefs (the wheel's turning, dat's all! mwaaahaha ;-)

Who could resist another lil Flash game? Not I, sure thing :P
So here's one coming from the creative *Naive* to start the week in the laziest way ;-)

Haaaa, I've just found some lil stooopid *entertainer*!
Sometimes I don't need much to have fun.. scary! heh

Weeeeeee!!! I'm not going to miss this new full moon! :)))
For once, I thought I could add a bit of classic Fantasy style here (I'm just frustrated I don't get the painter's name!), it suits the lil event :)

Happy full moon ;-) **~~*^***^* *

It's not even 8.00 am and I'm about to start working on my new painting while Martin already gets his hands in 2 computers (lol, dunno what's he doing, but in a min, Gulli will also gets its surgery cession... eeeeck!)

What Jack told me a couple of years ago is rilly trooooe: with a baby around, you forget what is sleeping late in the morning!!!!

But we survive :P

I do not realize really how lucky I am to not suffer from any form of violence. Specially the violence which is inflicted to women because they are women.
It's only when I read the papers, hear about terrible experiences, that I can *feel* my luck.
And that's when I heard about Amnesty International's new action, that I thought it would not be that bad to keep an eye open on what's happening around to other goils.

Tadaaaaaaaa!!!! It's official, our book gonna be published in May!
Weeeeeehooooooooooo!!!!**~~*^* *^^* *

And for my *tv-quote-of-the-week*, I've chosen the Coupling show!
There have been rillllllllllly memorable scenes in it! hehe **~~*^* *



Sally: "You’ve never understood about bottoms, Jane. Having a bottom is like living with the enemy. Not only do they spend their lives slowly inflating, they flirt with men while we’re looking the other way".

from "Her Best Friend’s Bottom" episode

If you had to chose between financial success or bits of *fame*, what would it be?
Fame is pleasant and all (I imagine! lol), but I'd definatly chose financial success!!!

In a few weeks, maybe beginning of spring, I'm invited in the school of my niece Eva to talk of my job as a tale writer (I've written 2 only! lol) and illustrator.
hehe...
I'll have to prepare a bit my speech... an audience of 5, 6 years-old children deserve some attention me thinks! :-))
Eva will be definatly proud to have her *witchauntie* at school (each time she sees me she asks me to teach her everything about magic. I usually tell her it does not *work* on weekends :P)...

...and I'll feel like a real *professional* ;-)

I've finally put online the book cover on which I've been working on December. Unfotunatelly my customer hasn't found yet the money to pay for it. So I wait, without much hope.
I've learnt one thing at least, it's that next time with works on commission, I'll proceed differently. Once a sketch is accepted, I'll ask 25 or 50% of the price. To be sure to not lose all the money.

Anyway, that was a very interesting experience at least :))


The day of the Red Sun

Among the several quests that makes my life rilly exciting, there is this one in which I'm looking for the *purrrfect Bloooooe*. I'm not specially fond of the blue colour, but when it comes to twilight.... I could sell my soul to *physically* feel and *breathe* this unique bloooooe... I think it gets its special light from the sun which has just disappeared.
I can't find this bloooe anywhere else than there, above, at this special time of the day.

Here one pic that give you a lil idea of my idea of the *puuuuurefct bloooooe* ....
(happy sigh)**~~*^* ^^* ** *


This is a photo by Paul Anderson, a photo of the Leven River in Ulverstone Tasmania just after the sun had set

Besides the green house, I also take Lola once a week to another place called P.M.I. So far, we went there on monday morning, it was the day for babies.

But Lola isn't a baby anymore, hm? :)
So now we'll go there on wednesday afternoon (just at the time of her nap.... eeeeck), the day for older children (as soon as they know walking, they're called "older children"... lol).
We'll try that today. Instead of 1 hour, we'll spend 2 hours there. Which is long for both Lola... and I! lol

I hope, and I cross my bits very hard, that once back here after the PMI... Lola will make a real nap!!! I miss dem! (and so does she! She's in terrible mood since a few days, because of her lack of sleep...).

I don't remember when Gulliver's birthday is (= when we bought it), but we've just offered him a lil something that should please his techie bits :P
... To its 20 gigs hard drive, we'll add a 60 gigs one (yeah, Esox, can you hear that? hehe... I can see ya drooling already :P)

And here's an happy boy! Cheers, Gulli! **~~*^* *^^* *


Gulliver

It's Tuesday, I've bloody cold feet and feel kinda less rich than tomorrow but happier than yesterday! (lol, does that mean anything?)

(hic!)


We've just bought... 12 bottles of champ'!
(first time in our life we buy so much of the bubbled blessed beverage!)

We had the opportunity to buy directly to the producer actually... and the price for a really fine quality was so interesting that we just could not let this opportunity go.
We pay for one bottle 10.95 Euros (£7.15, $13.62, Oz$17.29) ....

not bad, hey?!!!

On this grey and rilly cold Sunday, we had our own lil sun shining enough to make our day! **~~*^* *^^* ^*